Dish’s $25.5 billion bid for Sprint made April 15 is “an
important new development” that increases uncertainty
surrounding the $20 billion bid Tokyo-based Softbank made in
October, Dish said in a filing yesterday at the FCC. “Because
Dish’s merger proposal is currently before the Sprint board of
directors, the question of which transaction the commission
ultimately should be deciding is unsettled.”

Sprint, based in Overland Park, Kansas, said this week that
its board will evaluate Dish’s offer. The Englewood, Colorado-
based satellite-television company’s proposal has gained support
from investor Omega Advisors and billionaire John Paulson.

John Taylor, a spokesman for Sprint, and Neil Grace, an FCC
spokesman, declined to comment.

The bid by Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen, like that by
Softbank President Masayoshi Son, would enhance third-largest
U.S. wireless carrier Sprint’s potency as a challenger to market
leader Verizon Wireless and No. 2 AT&T Inc.

Dish wants to move into wireless as growth slows in its
traditional pay-TV business. The company on Jan. 16 asked the
FCC to delay consideration of the Softbank bid, citing
uncertainty created by Dish’s pursuit of Sprint partner
Clearwire Corp. This week’s offer for Sprint means the
“critical issue” no longer revolves around Clearwire, Dish
said in its filing.

“It is far from clear that the pending Sprint-Softbank
proposal will move forward,” Dish said.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski on March 20 said the
agency’s review of the Softbank bid was on track for completion
by late May. Antitrust regulators at the Justice Department
cleared the deal in December. The same agencies would review a
Dish bid for Sprint.